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Sending Thanks to Soldiers

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CIU alumnus Brian Bohlman (left) is greeted by President Barack Obama during the president's visit to Afghanistan in May. (White House photo)

July 06, 2012

What better thing to do on Independence Day than to thank a soldier. That’s what Columbia International University alumnus Lt. Col. Brian Bohlman was encouraging fellow Americans to do on the Fourth of July. Bohlman is a U.S. Air Force chaplain who graduated from CIU in 2000 with a Master of Divinity degree. Bohlman, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, heads the non-profit group Operation Thank You that sends cards of appreciation to U.S. soldiers around the world.

On Independence Day 2012, Bohlman staked out a booth at the annual Lexington County Peach Festival in Gilbert, S.C. where he braved temperatures in the upper 90s and invited the thousands of people who passed by to sign a card of thanks to a soldier stationed somewhere far from home.